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The Zuiderzee Works (Dutch: Zuiderzeewerken) are a system of man-made dams, dikes and polders built in the former Zuiderzee, the current day IJsselmeer and Markermeer, which are found in the Netherlands.

Understand

The Almere (ca. 800 AD)

The Netherlands, literally meaning lower countries, are as its name implies, rather flat. Only half of the country is more than a metre above sea level. The country therefore has always been prone to flooding and damages caused by water. While 1,285,000 hectares (4,960 sq mi) has been claimed from the North Sea and inland lakes between 1200 and 1900 AD, 1,400,000 hectares (5,400 sq mi) was lost to the South Sea, an inland sea between Friesland, Overijssel, Gelderland, Utrecht and North Holland.

The South Sea had grown from a complex of lakes referred to as Flevo during Roman times, which by 1 AD had combined into one large lake. This lake would then become the Almere, a fresh or slightly brackish lake with a single inlet between the modern day islands of Vlieland and Terschelling. From here on, it grew into a proper inland sea, which only proved more of a threat to the Low Countries as time went by. Only during the Dark Ages were the Dutch able to protect themselves against the South Sea, building dikes to prevent further growth of the sea.

After the Eighty Years' War the Northern Netherlands bloomed and managed to further develop their windmills, eventually being able to use them for land reclamation. As this newfound technology was perfected, larger areas were able to be drained. This led to the creation of the Dutch polderlandschap (polder landscape), with the Beemster being the most known example.

Reclaiming the sea

Though the growth of the South Sea was already limited through dikes, the sea was a threat nonetheless. The first plans to drain the South Sea were proposed in 1667 by Hendrik Stevin, son of mathematician Simon Stevin. Stevin's biggest goal was to tame the South Sea by isolating it from the North Sea. Stevin planned a system of dikes from North Holland to Friesland via the Waddeneilanden. This would have allowed the Dutch to reclaim a lot of land and protect themselves from yet another sea. Stevin's plans, however, proved to be way ahead of their time, as the Dutch were not yet able to build such complicated dikes.

Nineteenth century plans

Two centuries later, halfway through the nineteenth century, the motif of land gain started becoming more important than protecting from the sea. During the second half of the nineteenth century, several hydro-engineers came up with plans. The first of the lot was Plan Kloppenburg en Faddegon, presented in 1848 by J. Kloppenburg and P. Faddegon. Either of the men, however, had any experience with water engineering. Kloppenburg was a producer of soap and Faddegon was a mechanical engineer. The two wanted a dike from Enkhuizen to Stavoren, which allowed them to reclaim most of the South Sea as well as the IJ. They thought of the effects that the removal of the IJ would have for Amsterdam and planned a canal which would connect the city to the North Sea, but they did not take the IJssel mound into consideration, which ended up making their plan useless.

One year later, in 1849, ir. Bernard P.G. van Diggelen, who did have what he needed to come up with a good plan, yet his was even more ambitious. He roughly wanted Stevin's plans, but added several randmeren (edge lakes) around the coast of the existing mainland, as well as a water way between Den Helder and Vliehorst, the inlet between Vlieland and Terschelling. Though Van Diggelen had the experience to back up his work, his plan was largely ignored until some fifteen years later, when reclaiming land became a popular idea once again due to high land prices. Engineers T.J. Stieltjes and J.A. Beijerinck evaluated the plan and concluded that it was technically and financially impossible. The two then set to creating their own plans, Plan-Beijerinck in 1866 and Plan-Stieltjes in 1873. Beijerinck and Stieltjes both found that reclaiming the southern half of the South Sea was financially possible. The two both saw potential in a dike from Enkhuizen via Urk to the IJssel mound near Kampen. Beijerinck's plan was denied because it would result too little financial gain. Stieltjes then improved the plan and added many more canals through the polder. His plan, however, also failed.

Plan Leemans in 1877 was the first plan that was seriously considered. ir. Wilhelmus François Leemand proposed leaving Urk as the island it was and was in many ways way smaller in scale than Stieltjes' plan. The plans were ratified, but were cancelled by the next government.

Plan-Lely

Plan Lely (1891), drafted by Cornelis Lely, aimed to reclaim the fertile clay grounds and leave the sandy bits of the South Sea be. Even Lely's plan was bound to fail, but the 1916 flood made Plan Lely eventually pass. Lely drew five polders on the map, four of which were created. Those being the Wieringermeer (1930), Noordoostpolder (1942), Oostelijk Flevoland (1957) and Zuidelijk Flevoland (1967). In 1975 the Houtribdijk was finished, yet the last polder, the Markerwaard was never created.

See

Closing the last gap in the Afsluitdijk.

• 1 Amsteldiepdijk (Kleine Afsluitdijk). A dike spanning between Van Ewijcksluis and the former island of Wieringen, completed in 1924. Completion of the dike formed the Amstelmeer and connected Wieringen to the mainland via a land route, making it a peninsula instead. Technically speaking, the Amsteldiepdijk is a shorter version of the Afsluitdijk, and is therefore occasionally referred to as the Korte orKleine Afsluitdijk (English: Short or Little Afsluitdijk). Aside from its practical uses, the Amsteldiepdijk also resulted in a gain of technical experience for the construction of the Afsluitdijk. (updated Feb 2018)
• 2 Pilot Polder Andijk (Proefpolder Andijk). Drained in 1926 and opened in 1927, the Pilot Polder is as its name implies a pilot for what was to come. The polder was intended to gain practical experience with cultivating sea grounds. The polder is 40 hectares (0.15 sq mi) large and was fully drained on August 27th, 1927. The polder was the most expensive polder in the Zuiderzee Works per hectare, costing about a million Dutch Guilders at it's time (€7.7 million in today's money). (updated Feb 2018)
• 3 Wieringermeer. Work on the Wieringermeer started the same year the Andijk Pilot Polder was completed. Draining the polder was done using two pumping stations: Gemaal Leemans, a diesel pumping station with two pumps good for 250 cubic metres of water per minute and Gemaal Lely, an electric pumping station with three pumps, each of which could pump 400 cubic metres of water per minute. The pumps were put in action on February 10th of 1930. Draining wasn't supposed to start until the Afsluitdijk was completed, but an urgent lack of farmland made the Dutch speed up the construction of the Wieringermeer, making the work harder as the polder had to be constructed in the South Sea. The land was regained in August of the same year and was cultivated from 1934 onward. Division of the land was done through the government, which wanted to overcome what happened after the Haarlemmermeer was reclaimed some eighty years prior. In that case, the rich bought the land and rented it out for sky high prices to poor farmers. The land was distributed amongst farmers in plots of 20 hectares (0.077 sq mi). (updated Feb 2018)
• 4 Afsluitdijk. The Afsluitdijk (English, lit.: Closing dike) is the main dike making construction of Flevoland possible. The dike, running between Wieringen and Zurich, Friesland locks the South Sea from the Wadden Sea. The dike was completed in 1932 after being five years in the works. The dike was then opened to traffic the next year. Locks have been installed on either end of the 32.5 kilometres (20.2 mi) long dike to allow the fishing towns found around the South Sea such as Urk and Volendam. (updated Feb 2018)
• 5 Noordoostpolder. The Noordoostpolder is the third Zuiderzeepolder and first IJsselmeerpolder to be reclaimed, and at its cultivation, was the largest polder in the Netherlands, coming in at 460 square kilometres (180 sq mi). 31.5 kilometres (19.6 mi) of dike was used to circumnavigate the polder. The polder was not intended to be the first IJsselmeerpolder. Instead, the Markerwaard was intended to be first, but due to the Wall Street Crash and the financial crisis that followed, plans began to stop reclaiming the former South Sea, but eventually the decision was made to move northeast and construct the first IJsselmeerpolder there. The polder was fully reclaimed in September of 1942. Because the land was higher where it borders Overijssel, the first harvest of the land dates from 1941. Farmers were given their land after having passed a severe selection proces in 1947. Many of these farmers came from Noord-Holland, Friesland and Zeeland, but most notably from Walcheren, which was submerged in October of 1944 by the allies. After the North Sea flood of 1953, many more farmers came in from Schouwen-Duiveland, Tholen and Zuid-Beveland. (updated Feb 2018)
• 6 Knardijk. The Knardijk is the dike separating East Flevoland from South Flevoland. The dike served as a proper dike from its completion in 1957 up to the completion of South Flevoland in 1968. Nowadays the former outer dike is no more than a seemingly unnecessary dike amongst the agricultural fields. (updated Feb 2018)
• 7 Oostelijk Flevoland (East Flevoland). The second IJsselmeerpolder to be created, being in the works between 1950 and 1957. In just fifty years, the polder has gone from no permanent inhabitants aside from a lot of fish, to 110.000. Oostelijk Flevoland is surrounded by not only the IJsselmeer, but also the Veluwemeer, Ketelmee, Vossemeer and Drontermeer. All of these are known collectively as Randmeren or Edge Lakes. These were implemented as shortly after the completion of the Noordoostpolder, the surrounding old land started sinking as the ground worked in many ways like a sponge. The water from the IJsselmeer could no longer infiltrate the soil, and thus it shrank. To prevent this, the four edge lakes were created around both East and South Flevoland, and were also planned for the Markerwaard. Oostelijk Flevoland is the biggest of the polders, coming in at 530 square kilometres (200 sq mi), followed by the Noordoostpolder (460 square kilometres (180 sq mi)), South Flevoland (430 square kilometres (170 sq mi)) and Wieringermeerpolder (206 square kilometres (80 sq mi)). (updated Feb 2018)
• 8 Zuidelijk Flevoland (South Flevoland). The third and last polder to be drained from the IJsselmeer. Though there were plans to also drain the Markermeer, these plans kept on being postponed until they eventually were tossed away altogether. Work on the polder took place between 1959 and 1968. Zuidelijk Flevoland may not have been the largest polder upon its completion, but after just forty years it is the most populated one, counting 200.000 inhabitants in 2007. Like Oostelijk Flevoland, Zuidelijk Flevoland too has edge lakes, these being the Wolderwijd, the Nuldernauw and Nijkerkernauw, the Eemmeer, the Gooimeer and the IJmeer. Zuidelijk Flevoland also houses one of, if not the best known National Park of the Netherlands: The Oostvaardersplassen. Eighteen years after completion of this last polder, the province of Flevoland was formed, which was only done so late after the completion of South Flevoland as the Markermeer was still considered to be drained. The province was divided into six municipalities, with Lelystad as the capital city, which would have been the most central city in the four polders of Noordoostpolder, East and South Flevoland and the Markerwaard. (updated Feb 2018)